Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Please don't spend money on this.

Better Late Then Never

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Newlyweds, Laura Wilson (Patty Duke- THE BABYSITTER) and her husband, Mark (David McCallum) stay at Mark's family estate, in spite of his mother's (Dorothy McGuire) protests. Mark's first wife, Elaine had died there, and he's very touchy about the subject. Then, Laura starts hearing a tune found on Elaine's music box, to the point of being haunted by it. She also hears voices, and screams like a banshee sitting on a porcupine! Laura becomes curious about how Elaine died. Mark doesn't want to discuss it, so Laura talks to his mother, who tries to get her to leave the house. She also tells her the truth about Elaine's death. This sends Laura into a mega-tizzy! She screams and screams. The next thing we know, Laura's entire personality changes into a major meany pants. Has Elaine returned from the dead to possess her, or Is Laura cracking up? SHE WAITS is a tale of family secrets, murder, and possible vengeance from beyond the grave. BONUS POINTS FOR: Ms. Duke's final scream, that could peel a bunch of bananas from 100 yards away! EXTRA BONUS POINTS FOR: The music score, which is sort of Bernard Herman meets Bach...

Laura Wilson (Patty Duke, Valley of the Dolls, The Swarm) and Mark (David McCallum, Illya Kuryakin on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and better known to today's TV audience as Dr. Donald Mallard on N.C.I.S.) haven't been married long. And on their first trip to meet his mother (Dorothy McGuire, The Greatest Story Ever Told), she learns that maybe this marriage wasn't the best of ideas. Mom has been ready to go nutzoid ever since Mark's first wife Elaine died and she's convinced that her ghost is inside her home.Everywhere Laura goes, she starts hearing Elaine's favorite song and even her voice. Is she trying to possess her? Or she just being ridiculous, as the family doctor suggests? The movie never really gives in the whole way to the supernatural. It's more about Mark shutting himself off and not dealing with the past.The family maid thinks that Mark's mother is getting worse and worse, with Laura in danger of the very same insanity. And what's the deal with Mark's friend David (James T. Callahan, the dad from Charles in Charge)? And can you talk a ghost out of possessing someone just by, well, talking to them?Director Delbert Mann (Marty) puts together a competent story, written by Art Wallace, who was the main writer for TV's Dark Shadows. It fits into the 70's well, where possession and Satan and old ghosts of murdered wives were around every corner. It's slow moving, but if you understand that going in and know the conventions of TV movie horror, you'll find some good in this film.

Ghost stories were all the rage in the 1970s, but this isn't one of the better entries. Despite having perfectly good hotel reservations, newly-married David McCallum and bride Patty Duke come to stay at his family's manor in the middle of the night. Dorothy McGuire, as McCallum's mother, begs her son to leave, believing the house is haunted by his deceased first wife, but he chalks it up to her fragile mental state. Uninteresting TV-made chiller tries to create scares by having Duke hear a music-box theme that wife #1 was fond of, or feeling a presence in the bedroom when the curtains rustle. She attempts to talk it over with hubby McCallum--who's got a nasty, disgruntled disposition for a successful newlywed--and housekeeper Beulah Bondi, but nobody wants to admit to a belief in the supernatural. Long-faced, solemn scare-movie is too gloomy to be any fun.

I've just watched this movie twice; gorgeous visuals, really moody soundtrack. And this from a cheap TV movie starring Patty Duke! The story concerns a new bride arriving at her husband's family abode, to be unnerved by the possibility that she might be in danger of being possessed by the spirit of his deceased former wife. Patty Duke and "The Man From UNCLE" (McCallum) do a great job of acting, given the bad lines they have to deliver.And there's the problem = the dialogue is stunningly trite and obvious, no better than a daytime soap-opera. Pretend the characters are speaking a foreign language you can't understand, and you'll get a good frisson as the mood of this drama envelopes you. Don't turn off the sound, the music works perfectly.I Rate it at eight stars = two being deducted because of the dialogue.